New Neighbors

In the Family Student Housing around here we constantly have people coming and going- most families stay 4-5 years but since it is staggered, there is always someone moving in and out. We just so happened to have recently lost the neighbors next door and the apartment above them this summer and have been anticipating getting new "childless" peeps (which is fine you just don't ever get to know them so it is not as fun)... however we were extremely lucky to get some new kids in the place directly next door to us which I have really enjoyed. Also, as a person fairly critical of my own government (I like to refer to it as my critical thinking skills) I don't always have the opportunity to express my appreciation for being an American. My new neighbors have really said some things to make me think twice about what a gift it is, even under current political circumstances, to have been born into such abundance. Here are the reasons why:

1. The neighbors, whom I absolutely adore, have moved here from South Africa- specifically Pretoria, which is one of the nation's three capitol cities. In case you care about such things, she is half Afrikaaner and her husband is mainly British.

2. They moved here from a house surrounding with wiring and it is unheard of to send your children outside to play without watching them like a hawk for unexpected (or expected rather) violence.

3. When her husband was running late from returning home last night (he was down at IKEA buying up their entire household worth of furniture and had yet to load it in the truck by himself) the neighbor said that if she were in South Africa she would be afraid he had been the victim of a violent crime.

4. Their son had a rather unfortunate day at school--his first day in American school as a first grader and no one told him the bell meant to come inside so he wandered around lost trying to figure out what was going on :( The mom was shocked to find out that she could go with him and stay to help him, that she was not legally required to enroll her kids in the school, and that it was okay to talk to the teacher about what was going on

5. When watching the olympics with my aunt last night (we are still catching up from the last three days prior to the closing ceremonies) we were really excited to see Michael Phelps 8th gold medal when the neighbor came knocking on the door. I told her we were watching the olympics and she said "oh it must be fun to watch when your country actually wins medals" She said that South Africa had received one silver medal for the games and had 18 athletes (which I of course verified online).

Summary of the little gifts of being an American:

- We live in a safe country and I know that the biggest risk my kids take in going outside is getting into a neighborhood tiff or falling off of their bikes

- When my husband is running late I assume it is because he got lost or in an accident in a vehicle- not whether or not someone has attacked him

- If my kids have a crap day at school I feel comfortable going to the school and talking to anyone I want including the principal and teacher and know that it is their legal responsibility to provide a free and appropriate education

- Michael Phelps. Yeaaah.